Mobile Website vs App!

With smartphones becoming increasingly affordable, fueled with the lightning speed of 3G and 4G networks, the number of smartphone users worldwide is expected to surpass an astounding 2 billion in 2016, according to new figures from eMarketer. It has been estimated that in 2015, there will be over 1.91 billion smartphone users across the globe, a figure that will increase another 12.6% to nearly 2.16 billion in 2016!

With soaring statistics encapsulating the future of this smartphone-frenzied world, it is becoming essentially critical and promising to contour your marketing strategy in such a way that it addresses this wide and growing mobile audience. It is time to liven up your online presence in the mobile world too! Principally, there are two main ways that you can enable your presence to be felt, one is through a mobile website and the other a mobile application. It’s been proven, businesses only stand to benefit with the addition of a mobile website or mobile app, as it prophesies boosted sales, increased traffic, customer retention and expanded reach.

While both mobile website and mobile apps has its distinct share of benefits to serve as a marketing tool, it more so depends on what your business needs and marketing requirements are really are.

Read also: The Challenges of Offshore Mobile App Development

Prime Benefits of a Mobile Website

• Makes standard desktop version websites easily accessible and viewable on a mobile device
• Constitutes similar elements of the standard version of the website in terms of look, feel, navigation and overall usage
• Mobile-specific web browsers have been carefully designed to enrich user experience.
• Sports a mobile-friendly interface that offers improved readability and functionality

An added advantage that mobile websites project is that customers can also access mobile-specific features such as ‘click to call’ or location based services. Further, with a mobile website, customers can easily access your website anytime, anywhere using any mobile device, so long as they have a good internet connection.

Have Higher User Engagement

“Higher user adoption, usage volume and user engagement” among mobile apps when compared with mobile optimized sites. There are numerous factors that make an app more successful in the realm of user engagement:

• Mobile apps live on a user’s home screen. This equates to an increased chance of bursts of customer engagement with brands throughout the day.
• Mobile apps can be used offline. Yes, there are mobile apps that can function offline
• Mobile apps have the ability to send push notifications and reminders to users, furthermore, increasing the possibility of brand interaction.

Integration with Device Hardware

Although mobile websites are not able to communicate with device hardware when compared to how native apps communicate with different device hardware components. Mobile apps can more easily communicate with Bluetooth, USB, cameras, and GPS.

In comparison, it is so much easier to access a mobile app than a mobile website — all it takes is one tap on the home screen, versus having to open a web browser and type in a URL. Apps allow offline mode access, an added advantage, in the sense that apps have the wonderful ability to pull out content from the web or download the content so that it can be accessed without having to use internet connection. Mobile apps can be downloaded from any of the multitudes of app stores and marketplaces that are sprouting up online.

Although mobile websites and mobile applications aren’t really the same thing, as similar as they might be, they generally offer the same features with some slight differences. But both have the capacity to help grow your business by making it more convenient for your customers to reach you. That’s all that matters!